AMECRD Researcher Says Iran - US Conflict Has a Long Trail

JAKARTA - Mumtaza Chairannisa, a researcher at the Asia Middle East Center for Research and Dialogue (AMECRD), believes that Iran's conflict with the United States and Israel cannot be interpreted as a temporary war. According to her, what is being seen today is an old pattern: pressure on countries seeking to maintain control over their own resources.

"The ongoing conflict between Iran and the United States is neither surprising nor new. This is part of the old pattern of regime change during the Cold War era in post-colonial countries," said Mumtaza in her opinion received in Jakarta on Friday, March 27.

Mumtaza believes that the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 and the political changes in Indonesia in 1965 demonstrate a similar pattern. As countries seek to control their own resources, political pressure and the interests of major powers increase.

She stated that the Cold War was not just a matter of the United States and the Soviet Union. In her view, the conflict also affected newly independent countries in the Global South and left lasting impacts. The woman who earned her master's degree from the University of Cambridge cited Vincent Bevins' work in The Jakarta Method to show that Southeast Asia, Latin America, and other regions shared the legacy of this interventionist strategy.

For Mumtaza, Iran in 1953 was a pivotal point. After Mosaddegh nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, he was toppled through Operation Ajax, which involved the CIA and MI6. According to her, this point demonstrates that the struggle for influence often goes hand in hand with the struggle for access to resources.

She then drew a connection to Indonesia. Mumtaza believes that President Sukarno's actions in nationalizing Dutch companies, rejecting conditional aid from the IMF and World Bank, and then withdrawing Indonesia from both institutions in August 1965, cannot be separated from the global political competition at the time.

"The 1965 'coup' in Indonesia is an important reminder for Indonesia," she said.

In her view, similar patterns were also evident in Guatemala, Brazil, Bolivia, and Chile. The leaders of these countries, she said, sought to determine the fate of their own resources, but were ultimately overthrown and forced into the free market direction promoted by Washington.

Mumtaza said the reasons used by the United States may change over time, but the direction remains the same. "In the Trump administration's view, the justification is the nuclear threat, while for Eisenhower, it was the communist threat," she said. "Washington never runs out of justifications for intervention."

The woman, who earned degrees from Sciences Po Paris and the University of California, Berkeley, said the events in Iran should serve as a reminder for Indonesia to maintain the principle of an independent and active foreign policy. She also believes the global free market system remains unequal.

"Freedom for the United States and conditional for all other countries," Mumtaza said.